A week after RSS chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat publicly asked the Narendra Modi government to look after continuing violence in Manipur, Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a high-level review meeting in New Delhi on the security situation in strife-torn northeastern state Manipur.
Senior officials from the Centre, state governments, Army and other security forces were present. Earlier on Sunday, Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey had called on Shah here and is believed to have discussed the prevailing situation in the Northeastern state.
Dr. Bhagwat said Manipur was seeking a healing touch since a year and the government needed to urgently turn its attention to the northeastern state. Addressing a gathering of RSS trainees in Nagpur, he said, “Manipur is waiting for peace for the last one year. There was peace in Manipur 10 years ago. It felt like gun culture had finished there. But the state has suddenly seen violence”.
Bhagwat said the situation in Manipur will have to be considered with priority and there is need to get over election rhetoric and focus on problems facing the nation. “The unrest either got triggered or was triggered, but Manipur is burning and people are facing its extreme heat”, he added.
Ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, 2023 after a tribal solidarity march in the hill districts of the state to protest against the majority Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status. Since then, over 220 people belonging to both Kuki and Meitei communities and security personnel have been killed in the continuing violence.
BJP has won both Lok Sabha seats in Manipur to Congress and opposition has been criticizing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi not once visited this state during last one year or atleast conducted a review on the prevailing scenario there. The government did not allow a discussion on Manipur violence in the Parliament.
